Dreadnought
Dreadnoughts are the largest flying mechs, with the exception of the very largest zepmechs, and these super-heavy assault barges are terrifyingly powerful. Intended to serve as the ultimate weapon in the Trident mech arsenal, they were manufactured in very limited numbers. What few remain are rarely seen - or, at least, those seeing them rarely survive to report it. Development Developed as part of TI's "Air Supremacy" project, dreadnoughts were initially intended as flying airbases for raptormechs, although this approach was dropped when the difficulty of providing sufficient resupply space for a full wing of raptormechs became apparent. One dreadnought, bereft of weapons but strung about with bunting and banners, was present at Expo '45, although this example was widely ignored as it was thought to be part of TI's civilian development program. However, some military chiefs expressed serious interest in the dreadnought as a ground-attack platform, and it was this version that was brought forward to production. Only one facility was allocated to dreadnought production, and it's thought that the total produced was less than fifty. At least twenty-five, possibly as many as thirty-five have been confirmed as destroyed, and there have been no confirmed sightings of dreadnoughts in five years. Weapons Dreadnought weaponry can be divided into two categories - the spinal-mounted heavy plasma cannon, and the air--to-ground weapons mounted on the ventral surfaces. Spinal cannon Mounted along the central spine of the dreadnought is a super-heavy plasma cannon, perhaps the most devastating weapon ever deployed by Trident Industries. With a barrel a hundred and fifty meters long, accelerating a molten iron plasma packet to nearly 11,000 meters per second, the cannon is capable of penetrating any armour designed by man, including that of other dreadnoughts. While very slow-firing due to the need to dissipate the vast amount of heat generated by the weapon, the zone of destruction caused by the impact of the projectile means this is rarely a tactical disadvantage. Spinal cannons are prized by almost all groups in the post-Trauma environment, as they can be established as ground-based anti-dreadnought weapons. Dorsal weapons To accomplish their ground-attack role, dreadnoughts are equipped with numerous weapons systems. Destroyed examples have mounted between fifty and sixty multibarreled assault cannons in rotating turret mounts, along with at least a dozen missile launchers. One example also had a large external bomb bay fitted to allow it to carry unguided bombs, although this appears to be a feature unique to that dreadnought. Other weapons Dreadnoughts have usually six, sometimes eight assault cannons mounted on dorsal turrets, apparently as an air-defence measure, although these are insufficient to provide total coverage across the dreadnought's wide dorsal surface. Equipment Dreadnoughts are equipped with powerful long-range broadwave interfaces, although they lack the processing power to act as autonomous command-and-control centres in the same way as zepmechs and helpmechs. They are also equipped with powerful and sensitive sensor suites, allowing them to track multiple ground threats at once. A dreadnought is kept afloat by six huge ducted-fan turbines, each twenty meters across and independently rotatable to stabilize the dreadnought for firing. Dreadnoughts have been seen airborne with only four engines functioning, but it is not certain that being reduced to three would be sufficient to cause one to crash. Dreadnoughts can - and usually do - carry between fifty and two hundred mechs on board, both for defence and airborne assault. Mostly swordmechs and saltmechs, some dreadnought crash sites have also revealed snipermechs and demomechs. Variants There appears to have been only one variant of armed dreadnought, although the civilian version produced for Expo '45 was still airborne over the streets of Chicago by 2077. Reports from surveys of destroyed dreadnoughts seem to suggest that armament was not standardised across the range, but this is not unusual for Trident's experimental models. Vulnerabilites Dreadnoughts are clad in at least one meter of top-quality armour over all their surfaces, rising to nearly two meters over the power cores and sensor suites. This renders them almost invulnerable to any weapon, with the notable exception of another dreadnought's plasma cannon. Some reports suggest that the engines represent a potential weakness, although no ground force has survived any attempt to disable a dreadnought in this fashion. The only other weakness of a dreadnought is the undergunned dorsal surface. Dreadnoughts possess poor-quality air-to-air sensor suites, and it is possible for a small, fast aircraft to reach the upper deck and board the dreadnought through inspection hatches. Provided the assault team can avoid any on-board mechs and the automatic defences, the dreadnought can be disabled from any number of key control junctions. Category:Mechs